Along with Drs. Ahles, Hubbard, Gany and Trevisan, members of the Internal Advisory Committee (lAC) provide major academic leadership and support for the Partnership. The members of the lAC have diverse backgrounds that map onto areas of strength in our translational research and training portfolio: health disparities, biomedical engineering, and basic science. The lAC will meet quarterly to review progress of research projects and training and outreach cores, and will have oversight responsibility of effective mentorship of junior faculty and trainees. The lAC will also be actively involved in the identification of external reviewers for grants submitted for consideration for U54 funding, and decision-making regarding which grants to fund following external review.